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Don't forget it; you know the king, Don Felipe the fifth . Say Felipe, and add to it nas, which in Latin means 'islands of Indians, and you have the name of your damned country!" Consolacion, at that time a washerwoman, patted her bruises and repeated with symptoms of losing her patience, "Fe-li-pe, Felipe nas, Fe-li-pe-nas, Felipinas, so?" The corporal saw visions.
At intervals of about four years between each other, three separate expeditions were fitted out from Spain and America for these islands, which were named "Las Felipiñas" by Villalobos, commander of the last of these squadrons, in honour of the then Prince of Asturias, afterwards better known as King Philip the Second of Spain.
Another vessel started on the same day to "some islands ... which we call Felipinas, after our fortunate prince, which were said to be well supplied with provisions," for the purpose of securing food. Three days after this the troubles with the Portuguese began, with the arrival of the deputy sent by Jorge de Castro.
The story goes that on the day after her wedding, when she was talking with her husband, who was then a corporal, she had said Pilipinas. The corporal thought it his duty to correct her, so he said, slapping her on the head, "Say Felipinas, woman! Don't be stupid! Don't you know that's what your damned country is called, from Felipe?"
In a clause contained therein, moreover, I am ordered to come to these Felipinas islands and seek for certain people, lost here, who had belonged to the armada of Rui Lopez de Villalobos; and, in case I found them alive, to ransom them at his majesty's expense and deliver them out of their subjection to the infidels, in order to return them to their native lands and to the Christian faith in which they were born and reared.
How could it be Felipenas instead of Felipinas? One of two things: either it was Felipenas or it was necessary to say Felipi! So that day he very prudently dropped the subject. Leaving his wife, he went to consult the books. Here his astonishment reached a climax: he rubbed his eyes let's see slowly, now! F-i-l-i-p-i-n-a-s, Filipinas!
At the bay of Resurrection on this island he found a letter left previously by Villalobos and two others, one by Fray Gerónimo de Santistéban dated in April, saying that he with eight or ten men was going in search of the general in one of the small vessels; that fifteen men had been killed by the natives, and that twenty-one remained at "Tandaya in the Felipinas, at peace with the Indians;" that one of the small vessels had been shipwrecked and ten men drowned at the river of Tandaya; and other news.
On the arrival of the ship sent to the Philippines for food, it was determined "to go to the Felipinas, to a province called Buio," a salubrious land, "and abounding in food." Further misfortunes met them through stormy weather and the hostility of the natives, who treacherously killed eleven of the Spaniards in one vessel sent ahead to procure provisions.
Memorandum of things not only articles of barter, but arms and military supplies which are necessary, to be provided immediately from Nueva España in the first vessels sailing from the said Nueva España to these Felipinas Islands; of which the following articles must be speedily furnished: I wrote to your excellency from Puerto de la Navidad giving as full an account as possible up to that port.
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